PayPal expresses surprise at Apple Pay’s ‘limited functionality’

Apple Pay is a big announcement, as it could well mark the beginning of widespread adoption of mobile payments. What you may not have known is that virtually all of the features showcased by Apple during the announcement are already available with PayPal n countries across the world, including the UK. But PayPal doesn’t seem particularly worried about Apple muscling in on its territory, in fact Rob Skinner, PayPal UK’s head of PR commented that there was nothing surprising about Apple’s announcement.

He said to TechRadar “We were very interested in Apple’s announcement but there wasn’t a lot that was surprising, least of all to us. One of the most interesting things was essentially how much of the language that Apple was using that we have been using for a long time – things like not sharing information with the merchants or your credit card details. We’re quite surprised that Apple Pay has limited functionality. You can’t expect people just to swap their leather wallets for digital ones, you have to offer more and there is nothing to reward loyalty or provide offers or anything built in with Apple Pay.”

You know, he has a point. Skinner later added that a number of companies have offered digital wallets in the past, but since they didn’t quite know what they were getting themselves in for success was minimal. He noted that even a “fruity logo” won’t lead to overnight success, and even PayPal which has been building up a network of digital wallets for the past 15 years isn’t close to replacing the physical wallets or purses that people are accustomed to.

Skinner did bring up Apple’s excellent track record with innovative new tech, and congratulated it on the Apple Watch. He did, however, point out that mobile payments is a very tricky area and that it’s a lot more difficult than keeping a live stream working.